The Colombian reggaeton artist Maluma is the main attraction of the new Latin music festival “Lift Off” (Takeoff) that is celebrated today and tomorrow at Union Park in Chicago, where a young audience of about 30,000 people is expected.
The presentation of the winning artist of Latin Billboard and Grammys awards will last two hours and will culminate at night a billboard with figures of regional Mexican music.
Highlights Luis Coronel, Leslie Grace, Omar Ruiz and Joss Favela, as well as the Puerto Rican reggaeton Bryant Myers.
This Sunday the stage will be shared by the Mexican pop / Latin band Reik, regional music singers such as Lupita Infante, Lenin Ramírez and Sofía Reyes and the reggaeton singer Yandel, from Puerto Rico, among others.
Maluma, who resumed his F.A.M.E. for the United States, “we were excited and motivated by his global trajectory, watching his fans and how he breaks down barriers,” one of the producers of “Lift Off”, Iván López, told Efe.
The 24-year-old Colombian is one of the artists with the greatest impact on urban music and a youth idol of Latin music worldwide, with millions of followers on social networks and on his YouTube channel.
“Chicago, the most American city in the United States, which is nourished by a mixture of cultures that is different from any other place in the world, is the scene of something never seen in Latin music,” said Lopez, son of Mexicans and born and raised in Chicago.
It is expected that, as at the recent Lollapalooza rock festival, held at Grant Park, the Lift Off audience will also be mostly young students, attracted by a “multi-genre” experience.
Lopez said the festival includes rap, reggaeton, regional Mexican music, pop, mariachi and the presentation as well as disc jockeys, “something that the young audience will surely enjoy a lot.”
Union Park, located in the western area of the city, has been home to other festivals such as Pichfork, alternative rock, Indie rock and alternative rap.
The organizers plan to promote the festival throughout the Midwest. and in the next few years take them to cities east and west of the country.
